Representatives of Beijing Youth League and Beijing Volunteer Service Federation attended Thematic Forum of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation

　　The People-to-People Connectivity Thematic Forum of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was successfully held at the China National Convention on 25th April, 2019. The forum attracted over 130 international representatives from government, NGOs and civil society organizations to discuss on people-to-people exchange, livelihood cooperation and civil engagement. The IDCPC Minister Song Tao, the President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi, the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, and the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić delivered opening remarks for the forum respectively.

　　“She asked more volunteers to join her. Together they learnt songs, told stories, played football. Together they laughed. Gradually, smiling faces came back. Hope, came back.”

　　At the “story sharing session”, UN volunteer Mr. Junjie Lin assigned by Beijing Youth League (BYL) and Beijing Volunteer Service Federation (BVF) to share best practices of the UNV-BVF collaborative project. The story, with the theme of “Dream is Everywhere”, introduced a successful international development work conducted by Ms. Lei Guo in Mathare, one of the biggest slum in the world. Ms. Lei Guo was dispatched by the UNV-BVF collaboration in 2018. Empowered by volunteer spirit, she contributed the UN-Habitat to run a youth environmental preservation center, providing physical, educational, and civil spaces for young people living in informal settlement. Her work helped many of slum children foster their own dreams and strive for that.

　　This story was highly recognized by the attendees at the forum. It demonstrates indispensable role of volunteerism in advancing international people-centered development. Volunteering are emerging as a cross-cutting means to contribute to people-to-people connectivity. China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CNIE), Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing, UN Volunteers (UNV) China Office, and China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) provided strong support to this activity.

　　Chinese International Youth UN Volunteer programme is one of the significant outputs of the UNV-BVF 3rd Phase project, which is launched by UNV, CICETE, BYL and BVF. The collaborative project aims to strengthen capacity building of Chinese VIOs and to facilitate their involvement in international volunteerism development. Since 2017, BVF has sent excellent candidates as international UN youth volunteers to volunteer overseas and this deployment work will continue in the future.